1. Why I decided to do this challenge...
I created this challenge because I wanted to force myself to make the best decisions for my health. I had slowly started eating clean 2 months prior to creating this challenge (about 80% clean), but I knew I also needed to incorporate fitness, help fix my broken sleep patterns, and to eliminate the alcohol for at least 30 days. As I have said before, I have spent most of my life on a diet. When I was on a diet, I was losing weight (though slowly due to my thyroid issues), and then when I went off the diet, I gained it all back. I was so incredibly tired of the yo-yoing. I liked healthy foods, but then diets I followed (weight watchers mostly) would tell me that certain healthy foods were bad for me (avocados, olive oil, nuts, peanut butter, bananas, etc) and of course they were some of my favorites.
My brain was fried by all of the misinformation out there in this weight-loss obsessed country, being super-duped by a billion dollar weightloss industry claiming "sugar-free, fat-free, hydroxicutting, raspberry ketoning, miracle pills" are the answer. I don't believe them anymore. They have completely broken my trust and will never get it back because I see through them now. So why did I do this challenge? The diet industry is my ex-boyfriend, and I was hell bent on proving I could live better and healthier without him!!! This challenge proved to me that eating wholesome foods and incorporating fitness into my life made me feel better than any alcohol buzz, gave me more energy than any pill, and made me feel like I was being good to myself which made me feel better physically and emotionally.
2. What I liked about the challenge...
I liked a lot about this challenge. Cooking is one of my favorite things to do, and well, you need to cook when not eating out for a month lol. But I have always loved to cook and over the years have become quite good at it. I liked the accountability. While I felt bad making you read my daily meals, I did like that I was accountable for what I was eating because I was sharing it with you. Someone said to me after the challenge, "well you could have lied about what you were eating, that's not really accountability" and that is true, though I took this challenge seriously and never thought of lying, but maybe the accountability was in not lying about what I ate, rather than what I ate...hmmm. The actual challenge for me was the exercise. I vowed to go 30 days getting fitness in everyday. This isn't always realistic with busy lives, but you know what, it's much more doable than one thinks. AND, I totally realized that getting 4-5 days of fitness a week is absolutely doable. When I challenge myself, it's kind of like a dare, so I have to make it happen. I learned that I can workout and don't have to feel bad about being the bigger girl at the gym, we all have to start somewhere. And I don't have to be shy about what I do know, because while I am still the bigger girl, I know a thing or two. I don't have to be afraid of Zumba because my thighs jiggle, or I am completely uncoordinated, because I fell in love with Zumba, and I kick its ass, and I will do it 3-4 days a week forever!!! It's my new boyfriend ;)
3. What I learned I need to improve from the challenge...
BALANCE!! Yes, I cooked some deicious meals over those 30 days, and yes, I ate completely clean, but looking back over the daily menus, I really need to learn to plan my meals in advance for optimal health, and get balanced. While my dinners always seem to have the right balance of protein, starch, veggies, my breakfast, lunch and snacks were only so-so, leading my daily balance to be really off. I am talking for ultimate health, not that eating too much whole grain and not enough veggies in one day is equivilent to downing a large cheese pizza and 6 pack of beer for dinner every night. I really want to find the healthy balance of fruits & veggies/whole grains/protein/fats on a daily basis.
4. Eating Out and Alcohol...
Honestly, this was not hard for 30 days, but in all reality, part of life is dinner and drinks out with friends. I did learn after a couple drinks (after the challenge) that I am not as young as I used to be, and alcohol makes me feel horrible for a day or two after having it, so it's something I never thought of going without, but have now decided to have in small quantities, on rare occasions. I had no problem sipping water or club soda at the bar, though the same cannot be said for those around me, as it was always a topic of conversation lol. The eating out part blows my mind when I think of the calories/fat/fiber/sodium in the food and portions I cook at home compared with that out. It's astonishing really. Where do all of those high numbers come from when food is prepared out. It's sinful. But it is a part of life, and I will just try to make the healthiest choices when eating out. Order those things with the freshest ingredients, prepared in the closest way to home prep as possible. This may seem like a hard thing to do, and of course there are always times for treats, but bottom line is it is just food. This challenge taught me that food is fuel for the body, not for the soul, so I no longer look at it as reward or void filling. That is probably the most mentally rewarding this to come out of this challenge.
5. How I felt (hunger, cravings, energy, deprivation, etc)...
The ultimate surprise for me came in the hunger category. I thought by reducing my normal portions to healthy sized portions and by eating wholesome foods, I would feel deprived and starving all the time. To my surprise, it was the exact opposite. By eating clean, wholesome foods, I never felt hungry. My body would be hungry after so long, but I wasn't constantly thinking about when I would have my next meal. Food did not consume my every waking thought, like it did on every diet I have ever been on. I never considered myself food obsessed until I was on a diet and would be counting down the minutes between breakfast and lunch, and planning out what I would be snacking on later that night. Some days I had dinner planned before I even took my first bite of breakfast. While I am onboard with meal planning, it's now for a matter of convenience, not the thought of food. Other than the one day out of the 30 (visit from mother nature when I had a craving for chocolate and peanut butter) I had absolutely no other cravings. Not having cravings kept me from even thinking about food. I don't know if people who don't have health, weight, energy, diet issues ever obsess or think about food, but when you are overweight, or on a diet, it tends to be all you think about, at least for me...so this was such a nice change of pace in life, and I absolutely never felt like I was on a diet. It's funny, because I remember a phone call from my sister asking me to come out to Yogo for my nephew's lacrosse fundraiser. I told her I wasn't buying any Yogo, cause I wasn't eating it, but that I would just give him a cash donation and she said "oh that's right, you are still on your diet." I said, "no, for the first time in a long time I am not on a diet, I have changed my eating habits to a healthier way, and that doesn't include chemically laden milk products covered in sugar" and she said "same thing." I get it, it may make sense to me, but not to others, they may see eating healthy as a diet, and that is fine, you can define my eating however you want, but to me it's not a diet. If it is a diet, it's the best one I have ever been on. My energy was much higher than it has been in a long time (especially since I have hypothyroidism and that just sucks the life out of you). While I still have sleep issues, they are not as severe as they have been in the past. I cut the time it took me to fall asleep in half, and averaged only 1/2 of the awakenings I used to (thanks to my FitBit One, I was able to track this). There is still work to be done in getting a beautiful, full night's sleep, but I am heading in the right direction and believe it is because of my healthy eating and exercise habits.
6. Weight loss and pants size...
The one that most people are asking about lol. I dropped a jean/pants size in the 30 days, and also took 14.5 pounds off the scale. While I believe the first couple pounds are just water, I feel smaller in my stomach and rear-end than I did. The strange thing is that in the 2 weeks since the 30 days challenge ended, I have not lost nor gained an ounce. This would be utterly fantastic if I was at a weight I was happy with, but I still have about 35 pounds to lose. I am not sure if it is because I have only been exercising about 4 days a week, as opposed to the 7, or if I am taking in too many calories or not enough calories, so that is my next mission. I don't want to live a life of calorie counting, but I may take 2 weeks to figure out what my average daily intake is and tweak it to optimize my calorie expenditure. So that I can safely lose the remaining weight I would like to lose. I am fine with 4-5 pounds a month. The good news with this is that while I have continued to eat clean, I did have 3 meals out, that included 2-3 drinks, and I was able to maintain the weight loss I had achieved, because all of my other meals were healthy and clean. This is the perfect situation for maintenance of weight loss. Had this been just another diet, I would have gained all of that weight back by now.
7. Wrap-up and where I go from here...
I am very glad I did this challenge. I know more about the foods that fuel me and make me feel good, and are healthy for me. I have learned a lot and am more than happy paying it forward, but I also know that there are friends out there that need to follow their own path and their own journey, so I don't want to be that person that pushes my way of life onto them. I hope my experience helps, but from here on out you will not find me telling you how to live your life. You may ask me if I know what is healthy and what the best course of action is, and I would be happy to give you the info I have obtained, but I promise not to butt into your plans for your health (unless I am 100% they are horrible to your health and you need to know lol). I had a conversation with a friend one night and she told me she was taking OTC pills, and they were ok because they were all natural and I told her she was wrong (just because the bottle says all natural, does not mean they are all natural, unfortunately) and she seemed kinda pissed at me, I felt maybe she felt I was acting like a know-it all when I had no right to, as I still have weight to lose, so I apologized and let it go, and promised from that point on that I will not infringe on someone else's journey, regardless of my opinion.
The 30-day challenge is over, but my blog and journey toward great health is not. I also still LOVE to cook, so be prepared for recipes and mini-challenges I throw at myself. I know this isn't a cutting edge blog or page, I mean come on, I only have 54 likes, but I am really happy that those that do like my page and read my blogs take the time to do so. You keep me motivated!! So thank you very much!!!!
Creepy picture time!!!!
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